University of Melbourne’s medical students join global movement to stimulate action on planetary health

A team of University of Melbourne medical students have contributed to Australia’s first set of planetary health report cards, released on 22 April for Earth Day.

The Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) is an international student-driven initiative that evaluates planetary health education in medical schools and tracks institutional progress over time. This ensures the sharing of knowledge globally to help universities better mitigate the environmental impact of clinical care.

Australia’s PHRC was spearheaded by Emily Coady, Global Health Chair of the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) and incoming Co-Director of the PHRC, and Dr Grant Silbert, a junior doctor at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and active member of Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA).

In 2023, the first year that the initiative was rolled out in Australia, Grant Silbert, then an MD4 student at the University of Melbourne, took on the role of regional lead.

The University of Melbourne team of medical students, who range across multiple year levels, includes Stuart Henshall, Sean Yip, Mahalah Mullins, Ludmilla Pillay, Marta Cortada-McCorkell, Devanshi Sahore and Elizabeth Hu.

They spent much of their summer break conducting the research and consulting with experts across the University to answer the questions required for the University’s submission to the planetary health report card.

For the 2023-2024 cycle, contributions were provided by 151 universities spanning 18 countries. The University of Melbourne was one of six Australian institutions offering medical training that completed the scorecard, alongside Curtin University, Monash University, University of Queensland, University of Tasmania and University of Wollongong. Both the Doctors for the Environment Australia and the AMSA have welcomed their participation in this global initiative.

Stuart Henshall, an MD3 student who became involved with work on the Planetary Health Report Card through the Doctors for the Environment group at the University of Melbourne, said to complete the report, the student team went through the whole curriculum and sought expertise from across the faculty to obtain details on documents like the University’s sustainability plan.

It then went through various rounds of review by University of Melbourne staff, before being further reviewed at the regional and the international level.

“So, it was quite a comprehensive undertaking over the course of six months,” Stuart Henshall said.

“This first iteration was probably the most work because from here on in, you can actually track against the change. That's what it's all about; providing a mechanism to track development and to stimulate action in areas that we found to be lacking, or that have lots of opportunity.”

The PHRC reports discrete metrics in five key areas: curriculum, interdisciplinary research in health and environment, community outreach and advocacy, support for student-led initiatives and campus sustainability. An overall grade between A – F is provided to summarise all five categories, with a higher grade reflective of a better curriculum in safeguarding environmental health.

Across the six Australian medical schools, the scores ranged from B to D-, with a median of C. The University of Melbourne Medical School received an overall score of B minus.

“I think the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne Medical School has great access to expertise and there's some really strong research, particularly within the School of Population and Global Health. And there's also a number of sustainability experts who are doing great work within the faculty as well,” reflected Henshall.

“From the student perspective, I think our primary area of concern is probably curriculum because it's the one we are exposed to the most. And I think overall, there's some quality experts that teach into the curriculum on these topics. But our main conclusion was that we need to find a way to get a more coherent structure throughout all year levels,”

Stuart Henshall reflected on the process of contributing to the Planetary Health Report Card:

“I think the opportunity to have a say on the curriculum that we’re taught is really exciting. And as students, it's been a process to recognize how we could benefit in a whole range of different areas. That's the thing about climate and planetary health, is that it covers a huge range of specialties and topics across all year levels. So, there is an opportunity to build something cohesive, that they can tie together to advance all aspects of the medical curriculum.”

“It's just a moment to recognize that Australia is getting involved on the international stage and we’re pushing the frontiers of where sustainability and medical curriculums should be and what we expect junior doctors and all healthcare professionals to have a good understanding of,” said Mr Henshall.

Professor Anna Ryan, Head of Department of Medical Education said that the MD curriculum is in the midst of a major redesign.

"We’re committed to working alongside students, consumers and our colleagues across Melbourne Medical School and Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences to increase the focus on sustainability across curriculum, research and daily practices. We’re intent on creating an agile and responsive sustainability curriculum which will continue to evolve alongside research and translation initiatives and very much looking forward to working with the PHRC team and others on this," Professor Ryan said.